Streetcars a start toward rail future

Added economic development aspect of city route crucial.

Updated 8:35 pm, Wednesday, October 19, 2011

And the city's plan, crafted by Mayor Julián Castro and Councilman Reed Williams, is a logical first step because it supports the transportation effort with a strong economic development foundation.

The city plan calls for a north-east streetcar route that will help stimulate Broadway and HemisFair Park. Accomplishing that task will improve the odds that the project is worthwhile even if streetcars don't catch on as a local transportation choice.

The VIA Metropolitan Transit board demonstrated productive pragmatism Tuesday by approving the changes pushed by the city in lieu of the agency's proposed east-west route, which offered less economic development opportunity. The plan also strives to improve transportation from the West Side and East Side with circulator buses in the downtown area, and VIA's hopes to build a second streetcar line reaching west and south remain alive.

County Judge Nelson Wolff, the godfather of the effort to get a rail foothold in San Antonio, has long realized that getting the system started is a higher priority than getting the exact plan he or VIA chose first.

The $180 million streetcar plan is a less-expensive precursor to light rail and an overdue attempt to recast the transportation culture in San Antonio in preparation for a future that undoubtedly will include higher gas prices and most likely will feature tougher air pollution standards.

The community has to start somewhere now or start from scratch when local roadways and airways hit crisis levels. As a beginning, the streetcars, which can be merged with a rail system later, will do nicely.

The Broadway-HemisFair Park route will connect the growing complex at the Pearl, the coming wave of apartment units on Broadway and the nascent redevelopment effort at HemisFair Park.

Specifics remain to be negotiated and the joint agreement between the city, Bexar County and VIA must be finalized. But VIA President and CEO Keith Parker told Express-News transportation writer Vianna Davila, “We know our plan is fully baked at this point.”

The birthing process has been somewhat traumatic, but any effort to launch a rail system was destined to be controversial and difficult.

A key feature to this start-up is that it is being done with local dollars and a plan that brings value even if federal dollars can't be obtained to finance future expansion.

VIA officials are confident that federal funds will be accessible; critics see the nation's dire fiscal woes as a daunting roadblock for mass transportation funding.

But if those transportation dollars aren't available, federal highway funds will be scarce as well.

The need for public transportation is clear if San Antonio wants to nurture downtown as the vibrant jewel it is today and if community leaders want to invest in smart inner-city development that prepares this community for the future.